1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to providing virtual private network (VPN) services to users and, more specifically, to techniques for enabling users to utilize virtual private network (VPN) services using only a web browser.
2. Description of the Related Art
Virtual private networks (VPNs) can be used to provide a layer of security and anonymity to Internet users. Specifically, in a typical configuration, a secure VPN connection is established between a user's terminal 101 and a VPN server/proxy 102, as shown in FIG. 1. According to the conventional VPN protocol, the user terminal 101 sends a request 104 to the VPN server/proxy 102 for the Internet resource 103. The request 104 may be sent via a secure channel, wherein all the transmitted information is encrypted. In response to receiving the request 104, the VPN server/proxy 102 sends a request 105 to the Internet resource 103 requested by the user. However, the VPN server/proxy 102 is configured to mask the information identifying the user terminal 101 from the request 105. Such information that is being masked includes, for example, user's IP address. Upon the receipt of the request 105, the Internet resource 103 provides a response 106 to the VPN server/proxy 102. The VPN server/proxy 102, in turn, forwards (107) this response to the client 101 via a secure channel. Because of the presence of the secure channel 104/107 and the masking of the IP address by the VPN server/proxy 102, the Internet resource 103 or any other Internet entity does not detect any information identifying the client terminal 101, which initiated the request. Thus, user's security and anonymity is achieved.
In accordance with the conventional technique, the operation of the above-described conventional VPN system requires installation of a special VPN client software on the user's terminal 101, which could be a desktop computer, a notebook, or a mobile device. The function of this client is establish a secure communication tunnel with the VPN server on the network and to encrypt and decrypt the respective communications with such VPN server. On the other hand, in many situations, a user using the terminal 101 may not have the ability to install such special VPN software. Specifically, it is possible that the user would not have the appropriate permissions from the system administrator of the terminal platform 101, such as when the terminal 101 is installed at a public location or when the installation of additional software on the terminal 101 is prohibited by a security policy of an organization. In other situations, appropriate VPN client software may simply not be available for the operating system of the terminal 101.
Thus, it is desirable to have a system and method, wherein the user may use the private VPN services available on the network, such as Internet, without having to install and execute the specialized VPN client software application within the operating system environment of the terminal 101. In particular, it would be desirable to have a VPN system that users can access and use by means of only a web browser.